Bifurcated garment



April 16, 1946. J. KORET BIFURCATED GARMENT Filed Sept. 15, 1943 /NVE/VTOP JOE [(ORET A 7"TORIVE Y Patented Apr. 16, 1946 UNITED, STATES PATENT OFFlCE' BIFURCATED GARMENT Joe Koret, San Francisco, Calif. Application September 15, 1943,sea1m;502,411 i 3 Claims. .(c 2-212) This invention relates to bifurcated garments for women and girls and particularly to the socalled shorts tho the leg portions may be of any desired-length as in culottes, slacks, etc. The object of the invention is to provide a construction of such a garment vertically pleated in a mannerwhereby the garment may be easily or automatically folded along the pleat lines. to a flat double stack of pleats and which folded garment may thereafter be further. folded transversely of the pleats or rolled up without wrinkling the goods. Features and advantages of the invention will appear in the following description and accompanying drawing:

In the drawing: 7 l l v Fig. 1 is a front (or back) elevation of my improved garment or shorts shown in perspective and spread apart somewhat at the bottom to reveal the bifurcation. Fig. 2 is a side View of the garment folded into fiat condition. i

Fig. 3 is a somewhat diagrammatic top plan view of the folded garment of Fig. 2 but with the pleats opened up enough to permit their separate showing.

1 Fig. 4 is a view similar to that of Fi -3 but.

showing a bottom plan view of the folded garment and the relation of its two stacks of pleats. Fig. 5 is a greatly enlarged view showing a few of the pleats and the preferred manner of stitching them to make them permanent.

N Fig. 6 is a plan view showing one of the four duplicate sections or pleated blanks of which the garment may be composed. V V Before describing my novel. garment it may be said that it is recognized that bifurcated garments for women and girls havebeen made in many designs under the various names as shorts, culottes, slacks, bathing suits, trunks, etc. Also that the pleating. of womens skirts has been applied in a manner to facilitate folding skirts to flat condition, but insofar as- I am aware no bifurcatedgarment has been specially pleated to fold in this manner, but like most pleated skirts and dresses had to be folded quite regardless of the pleat lines, when desiring to fold them substantially flat for packing away, as in a trunk, and with consequent wrinkling of the goods in numerous places so that ironing or pressing was required to again make them look right after having been packed away for some time.

However, I have discovered that even a bifurcated garment if properly constructed may be vertically pleated and if the pleats of the bifurcated portions; particularly those which would come adjacent the inner sides of thelegs of a wearer; are pleated in lines which form aligned extensions of the pleat lines in the upper or waist portion, they will all fold up along the pleat lines to perfectly fiat condition with two stacks of ad- Jacent pleats connected across the tops and bot toms of the stacks by two outfolded pleated sections or relatively wide panels or gores provided for that purpose. Also that a draw-string or tape may be provided zigzagging through the pleats of the waistbandportion to instantly fold the garment upon pulling the opposite ends of the tape as has been done with some pleated folding skirts.

As the flat folded garment when viewed endwise or edgewise of the pleats would show them all in close contact, it is manifest that a true showing of them folded in the drawing would be confusing and therefore in Figs. 3 and 4 the pleats have been shown separated sufliciently for identification, and the layers of goods as single lines so to make it clearer and not unduly distort the apparent height of the two stacks of superimposed folded pleats.

,In the drawing the garment is composed of a body portion A and a bifurcated or leg portion 13; while the extreme upper margin constitutes a waistband'portion' C, which may be simply folded over or otherwise reinforced.

The body of the garment is comprised of a plurality of vertical pleats D tapering wider toward the lower end of the garment and joined by outer pleated lines I, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 1, 8 between which are oppositely folded inner pleat lines 9, H), II, I2, I3, l4, while the last outer pleat lines I and 8 are joined to somewhat wider sections or panels E which extend across the two stacks of pleats when folded to the correspondingly numbered outer pleat lines I and 8' where they join the other stack of pleats D.

For the sake of permanency, I prefer to have at least the outer pleat lines I to 8 inclusive stitched as at [5 (see Fig. 5) so that these major lines of folding will not be lost from use or damp ness, and centrally between wider panels E, I preferably provide a stitched line It, which is a joint in the cloth ironed fiat and which appear at opposite sides of the garment when on a wearer, tho it may be a pleat line either in or out as the two panels E lie flat across both stacks of pleats when the garment is folded as shown in Figs. 2 and 4, or this line may be entirely omitted if desired, but would be more wasteful of cloth.

The garment is preferably made of four identical shaped blanks or pieces of goods of the on whether for a fat or thin person, and these blanks are pleated first and thereafter sewed together in the known manner to complete the garment. The long straight vertical margins of each pair of blanks are joined along the lines 16 to form the seam between panels E, and similarly the short vertical margins are sewed together to make a vertical central seam at H along the inner side of theleg portion to join the two inner short panels-F and which are of a width corresponding to panels E so as to straddle and connect the two stacks at the inner sides of the leg pontions when the garment is folded flat.

The two pairs of blanks thus joined form two tubular articles open at topand bottom, and also open from the lowest part of the crotch'portion i8 along the curved line I9 up to .the. topcf the waistband portion, and along which lines the two tubular members are sewed to form a larger tubular body portion while leaving the garment bifur'cated from the crotch portion down.

As more pleats are required to extend around both legs than around the body of a wearer, pleats 4 and 5 are preferably sewed together at a point G above the lower part of the crotch as at 23, and still further up from point H pleats 3 and 6 are also preferably joined to 4 and 5 and stitched together as at 24 as a box pleat to the top of the waistband portion as indicated in Fig. l of the drawing. Some of the goods may be cut away as at 2'! in Fig. 6, to reduce the total thickness at the group.

One side of the body portion is preferably split along the heavy line Hi to form a fly and secured as by a zipper or buttons indicated at 20.

The waistband portion C is provided with short vertical slits or button holes 2! for the drawstring or tape J located relatively close to the outer pleat lines and further from inner pleat lines as indicated in Fig.3, and the tape is passed in and out of these slits in the manner indicated in the drawing and passes outside over both panels E, at one side of the garment and the free ends tie acr oss the outside of the panelsE, at the opposite side of the garment to properly contract the pleated waistband portion to fit the wearer, the extension of the-pleat lines entirely across the Waistband portion not only facilitating adjustment to the size waist of the wearer but also constituting the important factor in permitting the garment to fold flat as shown in Figs. 2

and'3, and which for moderate weight ofgoods is somewhat less than one-half inch in total thickness. The folded garment of Fig. 2 may be further folded transversely upon itself, or transversely rolled up, and all without forming wrinkles in the goods.

In Fig. 6 of the drawing the edges'of the goods are shown pinked a's'at 28 for turning over and sewing together, or for'the' usual hem along the line 29 at the bottom, and turning inward and downward along the" line 25 to form the waistband portion and sewed as at 26, though the waistband may be otherwise reinforced or separately made and attached if desired, but the pleat lines should extend entirely across it as indicated in Fig. l, to permit fiat folding as shown in Figs. 2 and 4.

It should be noted, that while the drawing shows one of my improved bifurcated garments with a certain number of pleats, no limitation is to be implied therefrom, as it is manifest the number of pleats used may be increased or decreased while preserving the fundamentals of the invention.

Having therefore described my improved bifurcated garment, what I claim is:

1. A garment comprising a skirt-like body having a waistband and bifurcated to form a pair of. leg portions having a curved crotch therebetween, substantially flat outside panels extending from the bottoms of the leg portions to the top of the waistband at the sides of the garment, shorter substantially flat inside panels extending in parallel relation to said outside panels from the bottoms of the leg portions at the inner sides thereof to the crotch, expansible and contractible accordion-like pleats disposed between said outside panels and extending from the upper edge of the waistband to the lower edges of the leg portions, and a drawstring extending circumferentially of the waistband, said drawstring having slidable connection with the pleats at the waistband whereby the pleats will be contracted and folded to lie flat between said outside panels at the upper portion of the garment and between said outside and insidepanelsat the lower por tion of the garment when the end portions of the drawstring are pulled relatively to the waistband.

2. Agarment as claimed in claim 1 and further including pairs of similar but shorter pleats at the front and back of the garment disposed between said first named pleats and said inside panels and extending from the lower edges of the leg portions to said crotch, said shorter pleats lying fiat between said outside and inside panels when the skirt is in folded position.

3. A-garment comprising a skirt-like body having a waistband and bifurcated to form a pair of leg portions having a crotch therebetween, substantially flat outside panels extending from the bottoms of the leg portions to the top of the waistband at the sides of the garment, shorter substantially fiat inside panels extending in parallel relation to said outside panels from the bottoms of the leg portions at the inner sides thereof to the crotch, expansible and contractible accordion-like pleats extending from the upper edge of the waistband to the lower edges of the leg portions and being foldable to lie flat between said outside panels, and similar but shorter pleats extending from the lower edges of the leg portions to said crotch and being foldable to lie flat between'said outside and inside panels.

JOE KORET. 

